Tonight, in the columnist messageboards at BackWash, someone said "Don't you just love the media." They meant it sarcastically in reference to how an interview was handled. But, what they didn't consider is that WE ARE the media.

I think a lot of writers take shots at 'the media' and forget to count themselves among them. Do you? Have you thought of yourself as a writer or publisher or member of the media in general today?

Well you are. Each time you put something out there for the masses to read you become the media. We may not all carry cards saying we are writers or publishers or editors, etc. But, that doesn't mean we aren't just one more member of the media.

Anyway, the discussion in the boards was about how someone was credited in an article. That is something to consider as you write an article using sources for information such as quotes or statistics. Always make sure you know how your contact sources want to be credited and then do your best to see that it comes out that way in print.

On the other hand, when you are the contact, make sure you tell the writer how you want to be credited. Make sure they have your URL along with your other information. Make sure they know it's important for your website to be included as part of identifying you as a source of information for the article.

If it comes out in print you can't do much to change it. You can get them to add it to a future issue but that's not very useful without the rest of the content of the article. However, if it's on the web you can get them to update the HTML or text quite easily, it just takes a moment of their time. So there is one more benefit to writing for online publications.

Well, members of the media, that's it for this week.

Looking for a writing exercise? Try One Word - http://oneword.invisibleland.tv/index2.html

simple. you'll see one word at the top of the following page. you have sixty seconds to write about it.

as soon as you click 'go' the page will load with the cursor in place.

don't think. just write.

When did you last buy/ get a new dictionary? How about a thesaurus? Maybe you splurged and got a rhyming dictionary too?

I especially like playing around with my thesaurus. But, tonight, I discovered how out of touch my trusty dictionary is. In fact, good old trusty is down right rusty. There is no ergonomics in my dictionary. Sure, I can spell check it with Lotus Word but it's just not the same. If you can't rely on your hand held print dictionary what is life coming to?

It's coming to the point where I will sacrifice a few (few dozen likely) bucks and buy myself a shining new, updated dictionary. Now, the question is which company to choose from. The current oldie is a Funk and Wagnalls I bought for college English classes. At the time it was the best choice between wordiness and thriftiness.

However, I'm not a college student any more. Now, I'm actually making real cash money every other week. I'll stick with paperback. It's easier to transport around and find space for. I can't imagine hauling out some hard, huge book every time I get the urge to look up something.

Another credential for my dictionary will be Canadian spellings. I'm Canadian and I intend to go on spelling like one. If anyone can't understand it they can just pull out a dictionary of their own.

While I'm dictionary shopping this weekend I'll peek at the thesaurus too. It's more fun than the stuffy old dictionary anyway.

So, how old is your dictionary? Can you find ergonomics?

Hitting their sweet spots has never been more important than for someone writing on the Net. What is a sweet spot? To take it out of writing context, think of yourself driving over a bumpy train track but steering your car to the side, to a spot where it's not bumpy. That, sweet spot, is the easy on your car and yourself.

In writing the sweet spot, as I think of it, is hitting just the right word or phrase. Something that your reader is looking for and has a personal 'thing' for. For instance, to appeal to women you can use words like 'diva, goddess, grrl'. Phrases like 'adventure living, backpacking, Earthy' appeal to nature lovers. There are better choices but those are the current pickings of my brain. Hope you get the idea.

Anyway, those catchy phrases and words are even more important online because people will be searching for them. Your article will be picked over by search spiders and those catchy, sweet spots will be caught in their web and added to a mind boggling list. You may not be first on the search list but you will appear somewhere. That's why those sweet spots should be considered, not just in titles, subtitles and descriptions but throughout the article or essay. Don't go crazy over it. Too much is not a good thing. But keep them in mind and don't think it's too cliche to use the odd cliche if it's an effective sweet spot.

Consider some of your own sweet spot words and phrases. Which appeal to you especially? Why?

One way to find sweet spots for a certain group of people is to join one of their online discussions, chats or boards and keep track of what comes up frequently. Let me know if you come up with more sneaky ideas.

How do you deal with disappointment or rejection? As writers we are going to get some of each, as long as you keep sticking your foot in the door and sending out your work. Which, of course, you are doing, right? Right?!!

Anyway, I skimmed a magazine article this morning and really liked two of the points they made. One was to immerse yourself in something new and the other was to take a reality check. The third was wrap your mind around it. But, that sounds a bit too much like dwelling on it to me. If you dwell on it that cancels out the other two.

Still, I really like the two ideas. Don't you feel better when you start something new. You're learning and researching new ideas and have the satisfaction of stepping away and keeping going. So they didn't like your great idea. You can keep it around for another try with another market or you can change your point of view or your angle on it. You can even toss it completely and work on something totally new. Develop a new passion.

Taking a reality check is great too. So they didn't buy it. Does that mean you're doomed to failure as a writer? No, of course not. You just had one editor that turned you down. It's disappointing but not the end of the world. Move along, nothing much to see here. But, now you can implement something new, as above. These two things work together so well.

Next time you need to get over disappointment remember reality checks and new passions. That should keep you busy, motivated and writing.